| May 9, 2008 #548 | ||||||||
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Table of Contents
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THIS JUST IN (Top) | ||||||||
(1) GUNMEN KILL CHIEF OF MEXICO'S POLICE (Top) | ||||||||
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MEXICO CITY -- Gunmen assassinated the acting chief of Mexico's
federal police early on Thursday morning in the most brazen attack
so far in the year-and-a-half-old struggle between the government
and organized crime gangs. | ||||||||
The Mexican police have been under constant attack since President
Felipe Calderon took office in December 2007 and started an
offensive against drug cartels that had corrupted the municipal
police forces and local officials in several towns along the border
with the United States and on both coasts. | ||||||||
Since then, Mr. Calderon has sent thousands of federal agents and
troops into those areas to establish law and order, provoking
retaliation from drug cartels that have killed about 200 officers,
among them at least 30 federal agents. | ||||||||
The acting chief, Edgar Millan Gomez, was ambushed by several men wearing rubber gloves and carrying weapons as he entered his apartment building in the Guerrero neighborhood of Mexico City with two bodyguards at 2:30 a.m. He was hit eight times in the chest and once in a hand. He died a few hours later at Metropolitan Hospital. | ||||||||
Commander Millan was the highest ranking official to be killed since
Mr. Calderon's campaign against drug dealers began. Intelligence
officials said it was highly likely that he was killed in
retribution for the arrest on Jan. 21 of Alfredo Beltran Leyva, one
of the leaders of a cartel based in Sinaloa State. | ||||||||
[snip] | ||||||||
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(2) OPED: HIGH SCHOOL STUDENTS STILL HAVE RIGHT TO PRIVACY (Top) | ||||||||
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The Supreme Court of Canada has issued a rather noteworthy ruling,
reminding police and school officials that our high school students
do not leave behind their rights to privacy when they walk through
the doors and hallways of our school system. | ||||||||
The ruling stemmed from a case in 2002 in a Sarnia high school when
a police dog uncovered narcotics in an unattended backpack during a
search of the premises. As a result, a 17-year-old student was
charged with drug offences. | ||||||||
The youth was later acquitted of the charges, after a trial judge
ruled the search was unconstitutional and threw out the evidence.
The Ontario Court of Appeal upheld that decision and two weeks ago,
the Supreme Court of Canada agreed that the student's privacy and
constitutional rights were violated. | ||||||||
Police officers visited the school and conducted a sweep of the
premises while students were confined to classrooms, actions that
the court called "a random speculative search" based on a "standing
invitation" from the school's principal for authorities to enter the
facility for random searches rather than acting on reasonable
suspicion. | ||||||||
It seems reasonable that schools invoke a zero tolerance policy on
drugs but as the court pointed out, students should feel confident
that their backpacks will not be subject to random searches by
police. School officials have more latitude in dealing with
suspicions about drug possession and should use that latitude
prudently. | ||||||||
[snip] | ||||||||
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(3) VIEWS VARY AT HEARING ON STATE DRUG LAWS (Top) | ||||||||
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As spectators booed and cheered, defense attorneys, prosecutors,
treatment providers and reformers testified before state lawmakers
yesterday about the ongoing battle of approaches in enforcing drug
laws and rehabilitating offenders. | ||||||||
The daylong hearing in Manhattan marked to the day the 35th
anniversary of the enactment of the Rockefeller Drug Laws, a set of
mandatory sentencing measures that made New York one of the most
punitive states. | ||||||||
Speakers urged the panel to build on amendments to the laws in 2004
and 2005, with most calling for a more public-health based approach
over a criminal justice strategy. Those alterations lifted the most
draconian elements of the laws, such as lifetime incarceration for
the most severe offenses. | ||||||||
The hearing is part of a process to determine what else should be
done. | ||||||||
"The city bar believes more should be done," said Robert Gottlieb,
an attorney in Commack and Manhattan, speaking for the criminal
justice council of the bar association of New York. "Allow them into
drug treatment, not prison." | ||||||||
Judy Whiting, of the city bar's corrections committee, said the
Rockefeller Drug Laws have wreaked "collateral consequences" on
people convicted of drug offenses and their families and
communities. | ||||||||
"People convicted of drug-related felonies face really serious obstacles to joining society once they are released," she said. | ||||||||
[snip] | ||||||||
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(4) GROW-OP TEAM SUSPENDED OVER CLAIM OF THEFT (Top) | ||||||||
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Langley Township's marijuana grow-op busting team has been suspended in the wake of an allegation of theft against one of its members. | ||||||||
"One of the members took something that shouldn't have been taken
and it was inappropriate," said Langley Township Fire Department
Chief Doug Wade yesterday. | ||||||||
Wade is in charge of the township's Public Safety Inspection Team, a
multi-agency group that uses B.C. Hydro information to target
power-sucking marijuana grow operations. The Langley team comprises
a firefighter, two Mounties, an electrical advisor and a bylaw
inspector. | ||||||||
[snip] | ||||||||
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WEEKLY NEWS IN REVIEW (Top) | ||||||||
Domestic News- Policy | ||||||||
COMMENT: (5-8) (Top) | ||||||||
The U.S. Defense Secretary took a trip to Mexico to talk about drugs last week. Once the Mexican and U.S. militaries put their combined attention on drugs, we might just win this war. Or maybe not. | ||||||||
In other news, the mainstream press continues to miss the biggest
medical story of this century; students at one school stand up
against overly punitive drug policy; and a Utah newspaper takes a
long look at the failure of the drug war. | ||||||||
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(5) DEFENSE SECRETARY GATES CALLS FOR MEXICAN BORDER SECURITY (Top) | ||||||||
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Visiting Mexico, the US's top defense official says he wants funds
to fight drug-trafficking violence and ward off potential threats
from militants entering the US. | ||||||||
As violence flares in Mexico's drug war, threatening security on the
U.S. border, US Defense Secretary Robert Gates made a historic trip
to Mexico this week as part of the Pentagon's push for Latin
American countries to deploy more military resources against drug
trafficking. It's also part of a security effort to shore up
potential threats that could emerge from militants crossing the
border. | ||||||||
Shootouts in Tijuana, Mexico's most violent city, are nothing new.
But a recent firefight between drug cartels was one of the more
violent episodes, Reuters reports. | ||||||||
Mexico's government sent more than 3,000 soldiers and federal police
to Tijuana on Tuesday, stepping up a war against violent drug
smugglers after 17 gunmen were killed in a street battle between
cartels. | ||||||||
The move is part of a broader deployment of soldiers that Mexico's
president, Felipe Calderon, has initiated at Washington's behest.
Mr. Calderon has sent 24,000 military and security forces to areas
overrun by drug gangs; Mexico drug trade resulted more than 2,500
deaths in 2007, reported The Christian Science Monitor. | ||||||||
The violence comes as Mr. Gates was in Mexico to meet with Mexican
defense ministry officials - the second-ever visit to Mexico by a
U.S. defense secretary, Agence France-Presse reports. | ||||||||
Gates said the focus of his talks in Mexico was the so-called Merida
Initiative proposed by U.S. President George W. Bush in October to
build up the capabilities of the Mexican military and law
enforcement to battle drug cartels. | ||||||||
The multi-year package would provide, among other things,
helicopters and surveillance aircraft to the Mexican military, which
the Pentagon sees as an opportunity to strengthen military ties that
historically have been chilly. | ||||||||
[snip] | ||||||||
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(6) STUDY: SMOKING POT DOESN'T CAUSE CANCER--IT MAY PREVENT IT! (Top) | ||||||||
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The Greatest Story Never Told | ||||||||
Smoking Cannabis Does Not Cause Cancer Of Lung or Upper Airways,
Tashkin Finds; Data Suggest Possible Protective Effect | ||||||||
The story summarized by that headline ran in O'Shaughnessy's ( Autumn 2005), CounterPunch, and the Anderson Valley Advertiser. Did we win Pulitzers, dude? No, the story was ignored or buried by the corporate media. It didn't even make the "Project Censored" list of under-reported stories for 2005. "We were even censored by Project Censored," said Tod Mikuriya, who liked his shot of wry. | ||||||||
It's not that the subject is trivial. One in three Americans will be afflicted with cancer, we are told by the government ( as if it's our immutable fate and somehow acceptable ). Cancer is the second leading cause of death in the U.S. and lung cancer the leading killer among cancers. You'd think it would have been very big news when UCLA medical school professor Donald Tashkin revealed that components of marijuana smoke -although they damage cells in respiratory tissue- somehow prevent them from becoming malignant. In other words, something in marijuana exerts an anti-cancer effect. | ||||||||
Tashkin has special credibility. He was the lead investigator on
studies dating back to the 1970s that identified the components in
marijuana smoke that are toxic. It was Tashkin et al who published
photomicrographs showing that marijuana smoke damages cells lining
the upper airways. It was the Tashkin lab reporting that benzpyrene
- -a component of tobacco smoke that plays a role in most lung
cancers-is especially prevalent in marijuana smoke. It was Tashkin's
data documenting that marijuana smokers are more likely than
non-smokers to cough, wheeze, and produce sputum. | ||||||||
Tashkin reviewed his findings April 4 at a conference organized by "Patients Out of Time," a reform group devoted to educating doctors and the public ( as opposed to lobbying politicians ). Some 30 MDs and nurses got continuing medical education credits for attending. | ||||||||
The National Institute on Drug Abuse supported Tashkin's
marijuana-related research over the decades and readily gave him a
grant to conduct a large, population-based, case-controlled study
that would prove definitively that heavy, long-term marijuana use
increases the risk of lung and upper-airways cancers. What Tashkin
and his colleagues found, however, disproved their hypothesis. (
Tashkin is to marijuana as a cause of lung cancer what Hans Blick is
to Iraq's weapons of mass destruction -an honest investigator who
set out to find something, concluded that it wasn't there, and
reported his results. ) | ||||||||
Tashkin's team interviewed 1,212 cancer patients from the Los
Angeles County Cancer Surveillance program, matched for age, gender,
and neighborhood with 1,040 cancer-free controls. Marijuana use was
measured in "joint years" ( number of years smoked times number of
joints per day ). It turned out that increased marijuana use did not
result in higher rates of lung and pharyngeal cancer ( whereas
tobacco smokers were at greater risk the more they smoked ). Tobacco
smokers who also smoked marijuana were at slightly lower risk of
getting lung cancer than tobacco-only smokers. | ||||||||
These findings were not deemed worthy of publication in "NIDA Notes." Tashkin reported them at the 2005 meeting of the International Cannabinoid Research Society and they were published in the October 2006 issue of Cancer Epidemiology Biomarkers & Prevention. Without a press release from NIDA calling attention to its significance, the assignment editors of America had no idea that "Marijuana Use and the Risk of Lung and Upper Aerodigestive Tract
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I suggested to Eric Bailey of the L.A. Times that he write up
Tashkin's findings -UCLA provided the local angle if the anti-cancer
effect wasn't enough. Bailey said his editors wouldn't be interested
for some time because he had just filed a marijuana-related piece (
about the special rapport Steph Sherer of Americans for Safe Access
enjoyed with some old corporado back in Washington, D.C. ) The
Tashkin scoop is still there for the taking! | ||||||||
[snip] | ||||||||
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(7) STUDENTS TO PUSH FOR REVISED DRUG POLICY (Top) | ||||||||
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Suspended Teen Says He Didn't Know About Burnt Marijuana In Car | ||||||||
Several West Perry High School students will ask the school board
tonight to modify its policy regarding punishment for students caught
with drugs on campus. | ||||||||
At issue is a senior who was suspended from school for five days and
the track team for 30 days after a police drug dog in the school lot
April 25 detected marijuana in a used car the boy had recently
purchased. | ||||||||
Friends of the student said police found a small amount of burnt
marijuana in the car's ashtray -- drugs they say their friend knew
nothing about. | ||||||||
"The punishment seems a little harsh," classmate Samuel Dubois said. "He got the car for basically nothing, but he's paying for it now." | ||||||||
Attempts to reach the student were unsuccessful. | ||||||||
[snip] | ||||||||
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(8) U.S. DRUG POLICY A TOTAL FAILURE, SAY USERS AND EXPERTS (Top) | ||||||||
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In a word, everybody's crazy about drugs. | ||||||||
Whether by prescription or on the street, whether you like your pill dressed in Pfizer blue or prefer little dull ones stamped with a bat emblem, love them or hate them, we've got a thing for drugs. | ||||||||
Government agencies of every variety want to control or get rid of
them altogether, while every little criminal -- from the two-bit
grifter on the corner to the really nice doctor eight floors above
-- seem to do all they can to keep them coming. | ||||||||
"Yes, we're pretty down the rabbit hole on all this," says Pat
Flemming, who, for the past 20 years, has led the state's substance
abuse prevention program or directed Salt Lake County's efforts.
"We're at a crossroads. We're either going to keep at it as if it
were some kind of war or we're going to make some real headway.
We're starting to -- the endmethnow campaign, for example -- go in
the right direction. | ||||||||
"Compassion and treatment is the morally right and the much more
economically sensible thing to do," he said. "Continuing to turn
people into criminals has never worked and never will." | ||||||||
[snip] | ||||||||
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Law Enforcement & Prisons | ||||||||
COMMENT: (9-12) (Top) | ||||||||
A District Attorney in Texas wants to punish prosecutors who withhold evidence and break other rules. Two new reports suggest that the drug war is racist, and some states are finding it expensive, but at least one commentator doesn't think that the drug war is racist or responsible for much prison overcrowding. | ||||||||
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(9) DALLAS COUNTY DISTRICT ATTORNEY WANTS UNETHICAL PROSECUTORS (Top)PUNISHED | ||||||||
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The Dallas County district attorney who has built a national
reputation on freeing the wrongfully convicted says prosecutors who
intentionally withhold evidence should themselves face harsh
sanctions possibly even jail time. | ||||||||
"Something should be done," said Craig Watkins, whose jurisdiction
leads the nation in the number of DNA exonerations. "If the harm is
a great harm, yes, it should be criminalized." | ||||||||
Wrongful convictions, nearly half of them involving prosecutorial
misconduct, have cost Texas taxpayers $8.6 million in compensation
since 2001, according to state comptroller records obtained by The
Dallas Morning News. Dallas County accounts for about one-third of
that. | ||||||||
Mr. Watkins said that he was still pondering what kind of punishment
unethical prosecutors deserve but that the worst offenders might
deserve prison time. He said he also was considering the launch of a
campaign to mandate disbarment for any prosecutor found to have
intentionally withheld evidence from the defense. | ||||||||
[snip] | ||||||||
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(10) REPORTS FIND RACIAL GAP IN DRUG ARRESTS (Top) | ||||||||
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More than two decades after President Ronald Reagan escalated the war on drugs, arrests for drug sales or, more often, drug possession are still rising. And despite public debate and limited efforts to reduce them, large disparities persist in the rate at which blacks and whites are arrested and imprisoned for drug offenses, even though the two races use illegal drugs at roughly equal rates. | ||||||||
Two new reports, issued Monday by the Sentencing Project in
Washington and by Human Rights Watch in New York, both say the
racial disparities reflect, in large part, an overwhelming focus of
law enforcement on drug use in low-income urban areas, with arrests
and incarceration the main weapon. | ||||||||
But they note that the murderous crack-related urban violence of the
1980s, which spawned the war on drugs, has largely subsided,
reducing the rationale for a strategy that has sowed mistrust in the
justice system among many blacks. | ||||||||
In 2006, according to federal data, drug-related arrests climbed to
1.89 million, up from 1.85 million in 2005 and 581,000 in 1980. | ||||||||
More than four in five of the arrests were for possession of banned
substances, rather than for their sale or manufacture. Four in 10 of
all drug arrests were for marijuana possession, according to the
latest F.B.I. data. | ||||||||
Apart from crowding prisons, one result is a devastating impact on
the lives of black men: they are nearly 12 times as likely to be
imprisoned for drug convictions as adult white men, according to the
Human Rights Watch report. | ||||||||
[snip] | ||||||||
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(11) FISCAL PRESSURES LEAD SOME STATES TO FREE INMATES EARLY (Top) | ||||||||
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NEW YORK -- Reversing decades of tough-on-crime policies, including
mandatory minimum prison sentences for some drug offenders, many
cash-strapped states are embracing a view once dismissed as
dangerously naive: It costs far less to let some felons go free than
to keep them locked up. | ||||||||
It is a theory that has long been pushed by criminal justice
advocates and liberal politicians -- that some felons, particularly
those convicted of minor drug offenses, would be better served by
treatment, parole or early release for good behavior. But the
states' conversion to that view has less to do with a change of
heart on crime than with stark fiscal realities. At a time of
shrinking resources, prisons are eating up an increasing share of
many state budgets. | ||||||||
"It's the fiscal stuff that's driving it," said Marc Mauer,
executive director of the Sentencing Project, a Washington-based
group that advocates for more lenient sentencing. "Do you want to
build prisons or do you want to build colleges? If you're a
governor, it's kind of come to that choice right now." | ||||||||
Mauer and other observers point to a number of recent actions, some
from states facing huge budget shortfalls, some not, but still
worried about exploding costs. | ||||||||
[snip] | ||||||||
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(12) OPED: IS THE CRIMINAL-JUSTICE SYSTEM RACIST? (Top) | ||||||||
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No: the high percentage of blacks behind bars reflects crime rates,
not bigotry. | ||||||||
The race industry and its elite enablers take it as self-evident
that high black incarceration rates result from discrimination. At a
presidential primary debate this Martin Luther King Day, for
instance, Senator Barack Obama charged that blacks and whites "are
arrested at very different rates, are convicted at very different
rates, [and] receive very different sentences . . . for the same
crime." Not to be outdone, Senator Hillary Clinton promptly
denounced the "disgrace of a criminal-justice system that
incarcerates so many more African-Americans proportionately than
whites." | ||||||||
If a listener didn't know anything about crime, such charges of
disparate treatment might seem plausible. | ||||||||
After all, in 2006, blacks were 37.5 percent of all state and
federal prisoners, though they're under 13 percent of the national
population. About one in 33 black men was in prison in 2006,
compared with one in 205 white men and one in 79 Hispanic men.
Eleven percent of all black males between the ages of 20 and 34 are
in prison or jail. The dramatic rise in the prison and jail
population over the last three decades-to 2.3 million people at the
end of 2007 ( see box )-has only amplified the racial accusations
against the criminal-justice system. | ||||||||
[snip] | ||||||||
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Cannabis & Hemp- | ||||||||
COMMENT: (13-16) (Top) | ||||||||
As expected, the British government proudy announced that it will re-reclassify cannabis to "send out a message" to youth that skunk weed can be "lethal," but as an editorial in the Guardian illustrates, being tough on cannabis consumers, regardless of logic, science and reason, is not the political points winner it once was. | ||||||||
A self-described soccer mom gave us her impressions of last week's Global Marijuana March, as manifested in Toronto, Ontario. | ||||||||
An hysterical parents group is finding little enthusiasm from local law enforcers for a war on shops selling cannabis paraphernalia. | ||||||||
Australian drug expert Alex Wodak suggested cannabis be sold via mail
order through the post office while speaking at the Mardi Grass
festival in Nimbin. | ||||||||
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(13) EDITORIAL: WARPED PERCEPTIONS (Top) | ||||||||
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Drugs may open the doors of perception, but drugs policy seems bent on
weaving perceptions out of thin air. Last week, headlines proclaimed a
new crackdown on cannabis. Based on unattributable briefings, which
bypassed the bar on official announcements ahead of the May Day
elections, the stories said the drug would be shifted back from class
C into class B. That may create the hallucination of action, but it
will achieve nothing more substantial. | ||||||||
The stories gained credence when the prime minister publicly described
new strains of cannabis as "lethal", as if they could trigger a fatal
overdose. That is as fanciful as the idea that sending a moral message
will do any good. True, cannabis has got somewhat stronger and - for a
minority of users - there is evidence of a link with disabling
psychosis. But Whitehall's own panel of experts has concluded that
increased marijuana use has not been matched by a corresponding rise
in mental illness. As a result it is reported to have rejected
reclassification. | ||||||||
Even if the science were different, changing the law would be a
mistake - for it will not cut cannabis use. From the 1970s until 2004
harsh dope laws sat on the statute book as a symbol of political
resolve, yet with every year that passed more people smoked the drug.
A new crackdown now will be even more of a sham, as the current policy
shows some signs of working. After cannabis was downgraded four years
ago it became more straightforward for police to confiscate and
caution. Figures last month showed a big rise in the warnings being
handed out - around 20,000 extra cannabis smokers annually are being
dealt with by the police. For the first time since records began,
cannabis is falling out of fashion: the British Crime Survey shows
that the proportion of young people trying the drug has fallen by four
percentage points since 2003. Whether or not that is connected to the
new laws, going back to the approach followed through the decades when
use was relentlessly rising would be perverse. | ||||||||
Which is why it is not going to happen. For dubious reasons, the
police chiefs are backing reclassification. But they said last week
that they would not revert to the days when cannabis possession gave
rise to automatic arrest, something that wasted so much time that
officers often turned a blind eye. If the policy on arrest is not
changing, the only effect of reclassification will be to threaten
cannabis smokers with five-year prison terms. As in the past, that
threat will be no deterrent as users know it will be imposed only
rarely. But a small minority, who for whatever reason the authorities
turn against, will find themselves thrown into jail. For them, a
policy based on appearances rather than fact will come at a very real
price. | ||||||||
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(14) TORONTIANS ROLL SOME JOINTS IN THE NAME OF FREEDOM (Top) | ||||||||
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Organizers were handing out festival maps at Queen's Park yesterday,
but the kids ahead of me just laughed them off. | ||||||||
"Who the hell needs a map?" chuckled one freedom toker to the other.
"Just follow the smell." | ||||||||
You sure couldn't miss it. My editor told me not to inhale, but I'm
not sure what he was smoking when he offered that impossible advice.
At Saturday's Toronto Freedom Festival and Global Marijuana March, the
pungent aroma of weed was everywhere as thousands converged in the
pouring rain to openly puff away in the leafy backyard of our
provincial legislature. | ||||||||
Ah, yes, plunk a soccer mom in the midst of a muddy marijuana
smokefest and behold her confusion. How many different shaped bongs
can there possibly be? Who knew you could smoke a doobie the size of
an Arnold Schwarzenegger cigar? And why is that guy inhaling his grass
through a gas mask? | ||||||||
"It's just funny," coughs Josh Spatz, an 18-year-old aficionado from
Uxbridge, after removing said gas mask to explain. "It just makes your
eyes burn a lot more but it grabs your attention." | ||||||||
Sure does. So Josh, I hate to be maternal, but do your parents know
where you are? | ||||||||
"Oh, yeah, my mom's cool with it. If it's not at her house, it's not
her problem," he laughs. "I've been smoking since Grade 8 - weekends,
weekdays. It's a way of life. It calms me down and keeps me centred
and it's a lot better than prescription drugs." | ||||||||
Wrapped in a red and white flag with a cannabis leaf at its centre, he
decided to come down to find out what the festival was all about.
"It's pretty cool. I never thought I could smoke pot in downtown
Toronto without getting arrested." | ||||||||
Yeah, about that. Aren't all these happy, mellow people breaking the
law? "We've been doing this for 10 years and we've never had a single
charge," boasts festival co-founder Neev Tapiro. | ||||||||
[snip] | ||||||||
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(15) GROUP: ENFORCE POT-PARAPHERNALIA BAN (Top) | ||||||||
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City Is Focusing on Sale of Pipes for Meth, Crack | ||||||||
COLLEGE AREA - College Area residents are going after smoke shops near
San Diego State University, demanding that city officials ban the
businesses from selling bongs and other marijuana paraphernalia, from
stash kits to scales. | ||||||||
The College Area Community Council has sent letters to Councilman Jim
Madaffer and Mayor Jerry Sanders requesting that they enforce two
state health and safety codes that together make it a misdemeanor to
sell the paraphernalia at seven shops along El Cajon Boulevard and
University Avenue. | ||||||||
Just before Thanksgiving, City Attorney Michael Aguirre sent cease- and-desist notices to 52 smoke shops citywide. The letters instructed the shops to stop selling drug paraphernalia or face consequences for the misdemeanor, which include up to six months in custody and a $1,000 fine for each violation, plus possible civil prosecution. | ||||||||
But Deputy City Attorney Makini Hammond said the office is targeting
paraphernalia for crack and methamphetamine use, not for marijuana, at
this time. | ||||||||
Members of the College Area Community Council and community groups elsewhere believe the city isn't fully enforcing the law. | ||||||||
"Clearly, under the code as we read it, bongs are not allowed," said
Doug Case, president of the community council. "The reality is that
the city attorney doesn't think it's politically popular to prosecute
smoke shops for marijuana paraphernalia." | ||||||||
Case said residents support "high-quality retail businesses" in the
neighborhoods surrounding San Diego State University and a
revitalization of El Cajon Boulevard. Smoke shops don't contribute to
a "family-oriented community," he said. | ||||||||
Hammond doesn't dispute that selling marijuana paraphernalia is against the law, but getting a conviction is another matter. | ||||||||
"We've primarily been targeting meth and rock-cocaine pipes because
those are the things we believed we would be successful in
prosecuting," she said. "The problem with going after marijuana pipes
is . . . there's always the defense that the stuff is being used for
tobacco purposes." | ||||||||
Hammond said another factor is a lack of adequate police and
prosecutorial staffing. | ||||||||
"We have limited resources," Hammond said. "Should we use them going
after smoke shops and marijuana bongs or drug houses? What does the
community want us to do?" | ||||||||
[snip] | ||||||||
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(16) 'SELL DOPE IN POST OFFICES' (Top) | ||||||||
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Cannabis would be sold legally in post offices, in packets that warn
against its effects, under a proposal outlined by the head of one of
Sydney's major drug and alcohol clinics. | ||||||||
The director of the alcohol and drug service at St Vincent's Hospital,
Alex Wodak, said Australia needed to learn from the tobacco industry
and the US prohibition in coming to terms with his belief that
cannabis would replace cigarettes in consumption levels over the next
decade. | ||||||||
"The general principal is that it's not sustainable that we continue to give criminals and corrupt police a monopoly to sell a drug that is soon going to be consumed by more people than tobacco," he said. | ||||||||
"I don't want to see that [industry] fall into the hands of tobacco
companies or rapacious business men. I'd like to see it fall into the
hands of the failed business people Australia seems so good at
producing or, the Australia Post that seems so successful in driving
away customers." | ||||||||
Dr Wodak made the proposal for taxed and legalised cannabis at the
Mardi Grass festival in Nimbin yesterday, but said he would be happy
to express his opinion to the Federal Government. | ||||||||
"In general terms, among senior doctors, professors, deans, college
presidents, I can tell you, from having done a straw poll, there's
very strong support for ending the distribution of cannabis by a
monopoly of criminals and corrupt police," he said. | ||||||||
[snip] | ||||||||
| ||||||||
| ||||||||
International News | ||||||||
COMMENT: (17-21) (Top) | ||||||||
Back in Hampshire, England, poppies growing in 26 nearby fields may
indeed be sweet to the eye and delightful to the senses, but not for
the commoner - for these opium poppies are known to Government, and
are destined to be used for officially recognised pain medications.
UK Officials rejected a Freedom of Information request to reveal the
opium fields made by the Southern Daily Echo newspaper. The largest
opium poppy field is said to be over 1,200 hectares. | ||||||||
When a Canadian tank or personnel carrier takes a shortcut through
an Afghan farmer's field, the farmer must be compensated for value
of the crops lost. But when the crop is opium poppies which are
never legal for Afghan farmers (unlike in Hampshire where they are
legal to grow, ironically), the Canadians won't reimburse farmers.
Why? Though farmers may suffer devastating financial loss from the
trampling of his most lucrative cash crop, Canadian forces don't
wish to be seen to be giving money to lawbreakers. | ||||||||
Business must be booming for Mexican cartels, according to the
Washington Post this week, cartels are making ever more brazen job
offers. One recently placed 16-foot advertising banner in the city
of Nuevo Laredo, ostensibly left by the Gulf Cartel, reads, "We're
offering you a good salary, food and medical care for your
families." At the behest of Washington, Mexican President Felipe
Calder=F3n has waged an intensified drug war since 2006, only to see
cartels grow larger and more numerous. | ||||||||
In Canada, there's talk of the Province of British Columbia picking
up the tab for Insite, should the federal government decide to cut
off funding. The legal authority for allowing drug users to legally
inject there, however, runs out June 30. While a host of studies
shows that Insite has saved lives, "opponents are left quoting from
a single, dubious study that suggests the experiment has been a
failure," written by "the research director of the Drug Prevention
Network of Canada, a prohibition group led by former Conservative MP
Randy White. | ||||||||
Meanwhile in Canada, the minority conservative government of Stephen Harper continues to demagogue the drug issue, copying failed prohibition policies from the U.S. Mandatory minimums, which turn judges into rubber-stamping figureheads and let prosecutors become de facto judges, have failed in the U.S. to do anything but pack jails with bit players. "If [get-tough drug policies were] the best way to produce safety, we should be the safest country in the world, and clearly that's not the case," noted one U.S. activist. Instead of keeping drugs away from anyone, such laws have made America the world's largest jailer. "Do we want to be building prisons or creating opportunities for education for our children?" | ||||||||
| ||||||||
(17) LOCATION OF OPIUM POPPY FIELDS TO REMAIN SECRET (Top) | ||||||||
| ||||||||
The Government has insisted that the location of dozens of Hampshire
fields used to grow the raw materials for heroin must stay secret -
to stop people stealing the controversial crop. | ||||||||
The Home Office rejected a Freedom of Information request lodged by the Daily Echo to find out the precise locations of 26 sites in the county used to cultivate opium poppies for medicinal use last year. | ||||||||
The poppies, from which the illegal Class A drug heroin is derived,
are used to produce legal morphine, which is used by the NHS to
relieve pain. | ||||||||
In February, the Daily Echo revealed that Hampshire was the UK's
capital for opium production, with the county's 2007 crop, taking up
1,238 hectares, almost as large as the rest of the UK's put
together. | ||||||||
[snip] | ||||||||
| ||||||||
| ||||||||
(18) MAKING HAY? NOT IF YOU GROW POPPIES (Top) | ||||||||
| ||||||||
In Afghanistan, Compensating For Ruined Crops Is A Tricky Task;
Canadian Forces | ||||||||
PANJWAII DISTRICT, Afghanistan - When paying compensation to Afghans
for collateral damage from military operations, Canadian Forces have
drawn a line in the sand where the poppies grow. | ||||||||
Soldiers in the Mushan region were in a unique bind recently after
their 83-vehicle convoy rumbled over two crops -- one wheat, one
poppy -- to set up an overnight security perimeter. | ||||||||
Land was torn up and both crops ground into the mud. The wheat farmer would have to be compensated, but the poppy growers presented a Catch-22. Replacement Canadian and Afghanistan soldiers in the region had just arrived that day. Angering locals by not paying for poppies was a poor start for soldiers about to forge new relationships. But the alternative was to finance the drug trade. | ||||||||
According to a recent NATO report, 93% of the global opium supply
comes fromAfghanistan poppies. Poor farmers grow the illegal crop
because it is profitable, but much of the money lands in Taliban
pockets. | ||||||||
Canadians discussed the security implications, but decided they had
little choice. They agreed it would look unseemly and send the wrong
message. | ||||||||
"Poppies are not recognized as a legal crop by the government of
Afghanistan," Major Mark Campbell of the operational mentoring and
liaison team later told the group who met to negotiate and collect
their compensation. "We will not pay for it. We will only pay for
the land so it can be properly irrigated to grow a proper crop, like
wheat." | ||||||||
[snip] | ||||||||
| ||||||||
| ||||||||
(19) LOCATION OF OPIUM POPPY FIELDS TO REMAIN SECRET | ||||||||
| ||||||||
Banners Taunt Military With Appeals to Soldiers and | ||||||||
NUEVO LAREDO, Mexico -- The job offer was tempting. | ||||||||
It was printed on a 16-foot-wide banner and strung above one of the busiest roads here, calling out to any "soldier or ex-soldier." | ||||||||
"We're offering you a good salary, food and medical care for your
families," it said in block letters. | ||||||||
But there was a catch: The employer was Los Zetas, a notorious Gulf
cartel hit squad formed by elite Mexican army deserters. The group
even included a phone number for job seekers that linked to a voice
mailbox. | ||||||||
Outrageous as they seem, drug cartel messages such as the banner
hung here late last month are becoming increasingly common along the
violence-savaged U.S.-Mexico border and in other parts of the
region. As soldiers wage a massive campaign against drug trafficking
across Mexico, they are encountering an information war managed by
criminal networks that operate with near impunity. | ||||||||
[snip] | ||||||||
Marcelino, a 74-year-old pensioner who did not provide his last name
for fear of retribution, said that he had been wronged plenty of
times by police but that drug traffickers had given him a sturdy
mountain bike. When the subject of the cartel's banner here came up,
he laughed until he broke down in a coughing fit. | ||||||||
"We are all Zetas. No doubt about it, we are all | ||||||||
[snip] | ||||||||
A few days after the cartel recruitment banner appeared in Nuevo
Laredo, Martinez said, he came across a group of 8-year-olds talking
- -- as 8-year-olds are wont to do -- about what they wanted to be
when they grew up. | ||||||||
One little boy stood up, Martinez said, and proudly announced his
hope: "I want to be a Zeta." | ||||||||
| ||||||||
| ||||||||
(20) IDEOLOGICAL PREJUDICES NOT SMART (Top) | ||||||||
| ||||||||
The clock is ticking on the future of one of Canada's most important
and unique attempts to deal with drug addiction. Perhaps that's a
good thing. | ||||||||
It may very well be good that the federal government is sending
signals it will soon no longer support Vancouver's supervised
injection facility [Insite]. Getting Ottawa out of the picture may
actually create some certainty and stability for the controversial
facility in Vancouver's notorious Downtown Eastside. | ||||||||
That's because Health Minister George Abbott has said the province supports the facility remaining open, which suggests the B.C. government is willing to operate it should the feds decide to bail. | ||||||||
Insite, which opened its doors in 2003, has been allowed to exist
because the federal government granted it an exemption from the
country's narcotic laws [illegal drugs, notably heroin, are allowed
to be on the premises]. | ||||||||
But the exemption expires on June 30. A host of supporters of Insite
have pooled efforts to keep the facility open - including a court
challenge - and goodness knows they're pushing a big rock up a steep
hill when it comes to dealing with the feds. | ||||||||
[snip] | ||||||||
Instead, opponents of Insite are reduced to relying on a couple of
Vancouver police officers who don't like the fact the facility
exists [although more than a 1,000 ex-U.S. drug police officers
think the whole approach to fighting drugs has been a dismal
failure, and support some kind of end to prohibition]. | ||||||||
And opponents are left quoting from a single, dubious study that
suggests the experiment has been a failure. But when one looks
further, it turns out the study's author is the research director of
the Drug Prevention Network of Canada, a prohibition group led by
former Conservative MP Randy White. | ||||||||
For the federal government to give greater weight to such a flawed,
questionable report [done, by the way, for a non-scientific
anti-drug organization] over such esteemed and credible sources as
the Lancet, the New England Journal of Medicine and Dr. Kendall
would be a travesty. | ||||||||
But then again, maybe that would be a good thing. If we can get rid
of ideological, moralistic attitudes shaping our approach to dealing
with drug addiction then maybe we can make some progress on that
bleak landscape. | ||||||||
So a word to Ottawa: hand this facility over to the B.C. government.
Let it continue its operations and good work. | ||||||||
Keep your ideological prejudices to yourselves. This province, and
particularly the people who literally need Insite to stay alive,
would be all the better for it. | ||||||||
| ||||||||
| ||||||||
(21) TORIES ARE COPYING U.S. CRIME LAWS THAT FAILED, EXPERT SAYS (Top) | ||||||||
| ||||||||
2.3 Million Americans Behind Bars | ||||||||
The Harper government is embracing tough-on-crime policies even as
the United States backs away from similar approaches that have
produced record levels of incarceration, huge costs and racialized
prisons, says an American expert on sentencing policy. | ||||||||
"We've had this get-tough movement for three decades now," says Marc
Mauer, head of the Sentencing Project, which promotes reforms in
sentencing law and alternatives to incarceration. | ||||||||
"If that's the best way to produce safety, we should be the safest
country in the world, and clearly that's not the case." | ||||||||
Mauer's observations are relevant because the federal Tackling
Violent Crime Act echoes the punitive approach to crime adopted in
the U.S. | ||||||||
Among other things, it increases mandatory minimum sentences for gun
crimes and impaired driving and requires those convicted of three
serious sexual or violent offences to prove why they should not be
jailed indefinitely. | ||||||||
The Harper government pushed the bill through even though crime
rates in Canada are falling and are now at their lowest level in 25
years. | ||||||||
In the U.S., three-strike laws and widespread use of mandatory
minimum sentences have resulted in a record 2.3 million people
behind bars -- 700,000 more than China, which has four times the
population. | ||||||||
[snip] | ||||||||
"Essentially it's become a question of where do we want to go. Do we
want to be building prisons or creating opportunities for education
for our children?" | ||||||||
| ||||||||
| ||||||||
HOT OFF THE 'NET (Top) | ||||||||
TRACY INGLE: ANOTHER DRUG WAR OUTRAGE / RADLEY BALKO | ||||||||
At Reason Hit & Run | ||||||||
| ||||||||
TO CATCH A LEAF | ||||||||
New York City's little-noticed crackdown on pot smokers | ||||||||
By Jacob Sullum | ||||||||
| ||||||||
RANDOM STUDENT DRUG TESTING IS NOT THE ANSWER | ||||||||
By Jennifer Kern | ||||||||
The drug czar's staff is touring the country hosting summits designed
to entice local educators to start drug testing their students --
randomly and without cause. | ||||||||
| ||||||||
MISSISSIPPI DRUG WAR BLUES - THE CASE OF CORY MAYE | ||||||||
At 11p.m on December 26, 2001 police in Prentiss, Mississippi raided
the residence of Cory Maye, a 21-year-old father who was at home with
his 18-month-old daughter Ta'Corriana. | ||||||||
| ||||||||
SAN DIEGO STUDENTS TAKE ON THE DEA | ||||||||
On Tuesday, May 6th, the Drug Enforcement Administration swept into
San Diego State University and arrested 75 students accused of selling
drugs on campus. The news media swarmed on the story, eager to declare
victory in San Diego's War on Drugs, but the SDSU chapter of Students
for Sensible Drug Policy wouldn't let that happen. | ||||||||
| ||||||||
CANNABIS UPGRADED TO CLASS B DRUG | ||||||||
Home Secretary Jacqui Smith has confirmed in the House of Commons that cannabis will be upgraded from a Class C to a Class B drug. | ||||||||
| ||||||||
| ||||||||
MILLIONS QUIT CANNABIS FOLLOWING RECLASSIFICATION | ||||||||
By Steve Rolles, Transform Drug Policy Foundation | ||||||||
After listening to Jacqui Smith MP talking about skunk cannabis in Parliament today millions of young people have decided to quit using cannabis and drink 3 litre bottles of white-lightning cider instead. | ||||||||
| ||||||||
NYC'S ARREST RATE FOR POT ACHIEVED BY POLICE DECEPTION AND SCAMS | ||||||||
By Steven Wishnia | ||||||||
New study says New York's cannabis crackdown is both racist and
fraudulent -- and that more have been arrested under Bloomberg than
Giuliani. | ||||||||
| ||||||||
DEPRESSED TEENS USING MARIJUANA, OTHER DRUGS TO RELIEVE SYMPTOMS | ||||||||
Millions of American teens report experiencing weeks of hopelessness
and loss of interest in normal daily activities and many of these
depressed teens are using marijuana and other drugs, making their
situation worse, according to a new White House report. | ||||||||
The report, from the White House Office of National Drug Control
Policy (ONDCP), reveals that marijuana use can worsen depression and
lead to more serious mental disorders, such as schizophrenia, anxiety,
and even suicide. | ||||||||
http://www.whitehousedrugpolicy.gov/news/press08/050908.html | ||||||||
| ||||||||
PSST... GOVERNMENT-SUPPLIED MARIJUANA PROGRAM TURNS 30 | ||||||||
That's right, our government has been supplying medical marijuana to
some patients for three full decades. | ||||||||
By Bruce Mirken | ||||||||
| ||||||||
A PRIMER ON PLAN MEXICO | ||||||||
By Laura Carlsen | ||||||||
The Bush Administration Has Put Its Proposal to Militarize Mexico to
the Upcoming Iraq Supplemental Bill | ||||||||
| ||||||||
DRUG TRUTH NETWORK | ||||||||
Century of Lies - 05/06/08 - Doug Hiatt | ||||||||
Douglas Hiatt a Seattle attorney discusses the death of Hep C patient
Tim Garon who was refused a liver transplant because of his use of
medical marijuana. Noted chemist Sasha Shulgin and his wife Ann
discuss the passing of Dr. Albert Hofmann. Steven Wishnia gives the
reasons why pot will soon be legal (and why it won't). | ||||||||
Cultural Baggage - 05/07/08 - Clarence Bradford | ||||||||
Clarence Bradford, the former police chief of Houston, Texas now
running for District Attorney of Harris County discusses the drug war
with host Dean Becker a speaker for Law Enforcement Against
Prohibition. | ||||||||
| ||||||||
WHAT YOU CAN DO THIS WEEK (Top) | ||||||||
HELP STUDENTS RISE ABOVE DRUG CONVICTIONS | ||||||||
Students for Sensible Drug Policy needs your help to overturn a
federal law that takes away college aid as a punishment for drug
offenses. Since this aid elimination penalty was enacted in 1998,
more than 200,000 students have been punished by it! | ||||||||
| ||||||||
LETTER OF THE WEEK (Top) | ||||||||
MARIJUANA WORKS WHEN OTHER MEDICATIONS FAIL | ||||||||
State Sen. Thomas George's statement that Michigan's medical
marijuana ballot proposal is unnecessary, "because we already have
medical marijuana in pill form" is incorrect ( "Michigan to vote on
legalizing marijuana for medical use," April 29). | ||||||||
Marinol, the pill he's referring to, is a synthetic form of THC, one of more than 60 active compounds in marijuana. Like other medications, Marinol doesn't work for everyone. That's why there are many different drugs on the market to treat the same ailment. | ||||||||
Before my wife, Beverly, passed away from ovarian cancer, we tried
several medications to relieve the intense nausea brought on by
chemotherapy. None of them worked for her. Beverly was particularly
sensitive to drugs, including Marinol, which made her hallucinate,
even at the lowest dose available. With just two puffs of marijuana,
her nausea disappeared. She didn't hallucinate. | ||||||||
Many patients cannot swallow a pill when they are constantly
vomiting. If they hold it down, it can take several hours to take
effect. Marinol is also expensive. | ||||||||
There is promising research into the therapeutic values of other
active components in marijuana. The American College of Physicians
strongly supports giving seriously ill patients access to medical
marijuana without fear of arrest or jail. | ||||||||
We have an opportunity in Michigan to make sure seriously ill
patients can get relief. | ||||||||
Dr. George Wagoner, | ||||||||
| ||||||||
| ||||||||
LETTER WRITER OF THE MONTH - APRIL (Top) | ||||||||
DrugSense recognizes Suzanne Wills of Dallas, Texas for her three
letters published during April which brings her total published
letters that we know of up to 30. Suzy signs her letters with Drug
Policy Forum of Texas ( http://www.dpft.org/ ) as part of her
signature, which is usually printed. Suzy is also a MAP Newshawk,
most often newshawking Texas newspapers. You may read her published
letters at http://www.mapinc.org/writers/Suzanne+Wills | ||||||||
| ||||||||
FEATURE ARTICLE (Top) | ||||||||
Hypocrisy of Appalachian State University Drug Policy | ||||||||
By Matthew Robinson, PhD | ||||||||
Recent stories in "The Appalachian" give students an opportunity to
see the hypocrisy of our approach to drug policy. From these
stories, we learn: 1) Appalachian State University is unwilling to
enforce its own policy on tobacco smoking near campus buildings in
spite of the dangers associated with tobacco smoke; and 2) students
will be arrested for possessing and intending to sell marijuana in
spite of the relative harmlessness of the drug. | ||||||||
Simple math demonstrates the ludicrous nature of this situation (keep in mind these are estimates). There are approximately 15,000 Appalachian students. Roughly 30% of them smoke, meaning there are approximately 4,500 smokers on campus. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) estimates that between 33% and 50% of smokers will die from smoking-related illnesses; thus, between 1,485 and 2,250 current ASU students will die from smoking tobacco. | ||||||||
Assuming even 20% of Appalachian students smoke marijuana each
month, there are approximately 3,000 current marijuana smokers among
our students. Of these 3,000 students, it is possible that a grand
total of one may die from marijuana-related illnesses (the CDC says
there are only approximately 1 to 2 marijuana deaths in the entire
country in any given year, so odds are not a single Appalachian
student will die from marijuana). | ||||||||
Comparing the death rate of these two drugs, we see that tobacco is about 990 to 1,500 times more deadly per user than marijuana! In spite of this obvious discrepancy, the university police will continue to arrest marijuana possessors and would-be sellers, and yet, they are "uninterested" in enforcing the tobacco ban. | ||||||||
Meanwhile, those of us who are sick of being exposed to the harmful
chemicals and carcinogens of tobacco smokers on campus are told to
use "positive reinforcement" to deal with this problem. I can barely
stomach the hypocrisy. | ||||||||
Ten years ago I proposed a six-element plan to my university to deal with this problem, once and for all. The elements included: 1) banning smoking near university entrances; 2) posting large and visible no smoking signs at each university entrance; 3) widely publicizing the new policy; 4) removing all ashtrays from near campus entries; 5) enforcing the policy with police officers the first two weeks of every semester until a new, voluntary anti-smoking culture took over; and 6) providing smokers with a place to smoke that is not near any campus entrance. Unless every one of these elements is implemented, the problem will persist. | ||||||||
I call on university officials with the power to do something about
this problem to do something about it once and for all. I am sick of
seeing marijuana offenders arrested while the people who force me to
breathe in the harmful chemicals and carcinogens of tobacco smoke
are literally ignored. | ||||||||
Matthew Robinson is Associate Professor of Criminal Justice at
Appalachian State University in Boone, NC. He is co-author of Lies,
Damned Lies, and Drug War Statistics: A Critical Analysis of Claims
Made by the Office of National Drug Control Policy, State University
of New York Press, 2007. | ||||||||
| ||||||||
QUOTE OF THE WEEK (Top) | ||||||||
"The laws of man may bind him in chains or may put him to death, but they can never make him wise, virtuous or happy." - John Quincy Adams | ||||||||
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